


Lil Bro

by nirejseki



Series: Lil Bro AU [1]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Family, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 02:52:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6638371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirejseki/pseuds/nirejseki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr prompt: "So I love Barry somehow being the younger brother and even though I don't ship it could you do something with Barry either being Mick's younger brother (or cousin) that Len doesn't seem to like (he's only pretending to dislike the kid of course he likes his BF's younger relative) and Len coming to Barry's rescue one day?"</p>
<p>Played with the ages to make this work. Almost certainly going to be part of a series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lil Bro

“He’s been following me again, Mick,” Len said mildly, turning a page in his book. 

Mick snorted from where he was perched by the old car he liked to tool around with when they had some downtime. “He likes you, Lenny, that’s all,” he said, trying to suppress a smirk. “You know how kids are at that age, if I remember our time in juvie right.”

Mick didn’t turn to look, but he would bet a bag full of cash that Len was rolling his eyes. “I don’t know why you’re being so snotty, Len. You know you like the kid.”

“I admit to no such thing.”

Mick still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on between his brat of a little brother and his asshole of a partner. It was Len’s fault that Barry was there, after all, if you really thought about it. The two of them had hooked up in juvie and Mick had admired Len’s endless willpower and drive. And all Len could talk about was his darling baby sister, which it seemed made his life complete. Mick had wanted that, that sense of family, that person you would do anything for. 

So he’d waited till he was out of juvie, out of prison, saved up enough for a place to stay from various jobs, and then he’d gone shopping at the nearest CPS center. Waited outside for one of the depressed foster kids being moved from one home to another or heading in to their first home to snap and try to run away. Mick’d been through enough shitty foster homes to know the drill – there was always one or two that couldn’t handle it any more. 

First kid out the door had been Barry. Mick had snapped him up and hadn’t regretted it since. Len was right: there was nothing quite like knowing you were going to be taking care of someone forever. Even when Barry ran off of school to investigate “mysterious” phenomena (no, really, he actually did that; Mick wouldn’t have been half as disturbed if it had been a euphemism for something normal like girls or smokes or something). He was _Mick’s_ baby brother, and that was that.

Honestly, Mick had really expected Lenny and Barry to hit it off immediately, once he’d finally managed to track Lenny down again. They were both such terrible geeks. And no, Mick wasn’t going to sit through a hundred hours – a _hundred hours_ – of something call Star Track or something like that, he didn’t care how many times Barry gave him puppy eyes or Len offered various other inducements. (He hoped they never teamed up, because that would be deadly to both his imminent free time and his future prospects of _ever making a decision ever again_.)

Even Lisa and Barry liked each other! But nope, Len and Barry had hit it off like a pack of cats and dogs both pissing on the same territory. _Rabid_ cats and dogs. Whose weapons were primarily sarcasm and biting repartee.

At first the dislike had seemed mutual, but then he’d ditched the two of them together on a stake out (Len had twisted his ankle and couldn’t be trusted to run fast enough on the actual job, so he’d gotten the job of getaway driver, and Barry had needed someone to quiz him on his Spanish vocab words, so Mick had taken the two birds, one stone approach) and somehow when he’d come back, Barry was staring at Len like he’d just descended from the heavens.

Mick couldn’t blame him – he looked at Len like that plenty himself – but it was a hell of a 180. 

A few weeks of Barry’s new-found hero worship later, Len had been bemused enough to spill the contents of their conversation, which wasn’t anything particularly shocking. Len had made a comment about his dad and Barry had spilled his story about his dad murdering his mum, a story Mick vaguely knew about thanks to conversations he’d overheard at the CPS office when he’d broken in to steal Barry’s stuff but had never pushed Barry to tell him direct. Man’s past was a man’s own business, after all, and there was plenty Mick didn’t want to tell him. 

Somehow Len had gotten the whole story out of the kid (apparently the dad hadn’t done it?), had listened the whole way through, and had done what seemed to him to be decent thing and offered his help. Mick wasn’t sure what was so special about that; Len was the right sort of person. The sort of guy who would always offer a hand to a friend in need. The sort of guy you could tell anything to and he’d believe you for no other reason than because you were saying it. 

Looks like meeting that sort of person had been just as stunning to Barry as it had been for Mick. Of course, being all of thirteen years old, Barry’s reaction had skewed a bit more “unabashed hero worship” than “let me swear my eternal devotion”, but it really wasn’t all that different.

Mick had been bewildered by Len’s refusal to accept Barry’s honest affection until Lisa had pulled him aside and explained that Lenny didn’t think he was worth any attention from anyone, so he kept thinking that Barry was making fun of him or something stupid like that. 

Mick had gone to talk to Lenny about his stupid self-esteem issues, but they’d gotten a bit derailed. (Mick had spent hours and hours taking Len apart piece by piece, whispering the sort of stupid promises that you deny in the morning, making sure that Len knew that on his part, at least, what they had going on wasn’t just convenient or temporary or due to some marginal benefit that Len as giving him. Mick regretted nothing.)

And so, here they were. Barry adored Lenny but was convinced Lenny hated him. Len would spend hours picking out the right sort of presents that he would then just “leave around the house” for Barry to stumble over, but wouldn’t say a word to him when they were in the same room. 

Blood family fucked you right up, it did. Family you picked was much better.

“Can you go get him from school today?” Mick asked, eyes still trained on the engine he was fiddling with. “I’m gonna to try to fit in the main piece of the –”

“Okay, okay, I’ll go, just don’t start describing your car parts to me again. I can’t handle your excessively macho hobbies.”

“Says the guy who plays hockey like it’s a _blood sport_.”

Len grinned. “Mick. Hockey _is_ a blood sport.” He stretched out, head lolling back to show all the long, lean lines of his neck and his heels digging in to the cushion as his back arched up sinuously and Mick had been saying something at some point, hadn’t he? Or possibly thinking something? 

Wait, why was he still working on the engine again?

Then Len rolled off the couch and grabbed his jacket. Right, Barry needed to be picked up. School. Very important. Well, it was, actually; they didn’t live in the best area, and Mick didn’t want to risk anyone shady getting a hold of Barry, as unlikely as that was.

He turned back to his engine, happily tinkering for a while, thinking soothing thoughts of internal combustion. Mick was never the one who was good with time (that was Len: Mick and Barry were peas in a pod when it came to the concept of punctuality) so he didn’t notice when the time Len and Barry should have been back slipped by without any sign of them. 

He _did_ notice when the door slammed open and Len stormed in, looking fit to kill, followed by – of all things – a widely grinning Barry who practically _skipped_ in. 

“Whoa, there,” Mick said, looking up. “Who’re we killing?” Also, why was Barry so cheerful about it? Barry was usually pretty squeamish about their more criminal endeavors – couldn’t turn away from them entirely, of course, Mick had explained that that was how they put food on the table and schoolbooks in his bag, but he generally spent more time trying to calm them down than cheer them on. (He was such a downer during bar fights.)

“Do you know what those little shits at Bar’s school are sayin’ about him?” Len said indignantly. “Those little bastards wouldn’t know a good thing if it hit them upside the head and did a river dance on their _face_.”

“Lenny told them if they ever came anywhere near me again, he’d punch their lights out!” Barry sang out happily. “He said no one ever messed with his _family_.”

Oh. Mick hid a smirk as Len shifted uncomfortably, crossing his arms in front of him. “Well, it’s true, innit?” he said defensively. 

“’course it is,” Mick said soothingly. “You know I’d do the same for Lisa.”

“Of course,” Len said, looking suspicious at Mick’s good natured response. “Just making things clear, is all. We can’t have people challenging us like that, after all, not if we want to make a proper name for us.”

Because, obviously, the words of schoolchildren were such a threat in the vastness of the criminal underworld. Sometimes Mick had no idea where Len got his ideas from.

“Don’t worry ‘bout them, kid,” Len said abruptly, turning to Barry. “Being smart and sticking with the school crap, that’s the best thing you can do for yourself right now.”

“I’m not a nerd?” Barry questioned.

Len snorted. “Sure, you’re a nerd. But you’re ain’t a nerd ‘cause you pay attention in class and turn in all your work on time, you’re a nerd ‘cause you’re going to go bananas at the new chem set I dropped off in your room earlier today.”

Barry whooped and rushed forward, grabbing a suddenly frozen Len into a big hug. “You’re the _best_ , Lenny,” he said sincerely before running off.

Len gaped after him as Mick finally gave in and guffawed wildly, tears streaming down his face as he bent nearly double in his laughter.

“What the…?” Len managed to get out, still staring blankly at the door.

“Sorry, Len,” Mick said, wiping his face clean. “Looks like you’re stuck with us.”

Len’s face twitched a bit, trying unsuccessfully for angry or annoyed, but then he gave in and gave a soft little smile.

“I can live with that.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Windows Let You See Sunshine](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8258954) by [Hiver_Frost_Elf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hiver_Frost_Elf/pseuds/Hiver_Frost_Elf)
  * [Intentional Baby Acquisition](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12542572) by [Queer_Queen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queer_Queen/pseuds/Queer_Queen)




End file.
